Family to Ogun gov: Don’t pardon our son’s killer

File: Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun

The family of the late Bamidele Adeyemi, who was murdered in Abeokuta, Ogun State, six years ago, has appealed to the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, to reject an application for state pardon and executive clemency filed on behalf of one of his killers, Ajayi Olayinka, who is currently serving a life sentence.

The bereaved family urged the governor to uphold the judgment of the court and allow justice to run its full course, warning that granting clemency to the convict would reopen unhealed wounds and compound the immense trauma they have endured since the tragic incident.

The family’s plea was contained in a formal petition dated Friday, September 25, 2026, signed by the deceased’s sister, Oluwayemisi Adesanya, on behalf of the family, and submitted to the Office of the Executive Governor in Abeokuta.

According to the family, Bamidele, a father of two, was brutally murdered in 2020 during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown after he refused to unlawfully reopen a restricted community security gate in the Onikolobo area of Abeokuta, the state capital.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that Bamidele was acting in his capacity as a member of the local community security committee when Olayinka and his accomplices violently attacked him, stabbing him repeatedly with broken bottles and knives until he bled to death.

Following police investigations, Olayinka and a co-defendant, Abayomi Oguntayo, were arrested, remanded, and subsequently prosecuted before the Ogun State High Court.

In 2023, both defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment at the Ibara Correctional Centre in Abeokuta after entering a plea bargain agreement that downgraded the initial charge of murder to voluntary manslaughter.

However, in a letter requesting a state pardon dated February 21, 2025, and addressed to Governor Abiodun, counsel to Olayinka argued that the killing was not premeditated, appealing to the governor to exercise his constitutional power of prerogative of mercy to grant the convict a state pardon.

“We humbly and respectfully appeal to Your Excellency to exercise your power of prerogative of mercy, to grant state pardon and direct the release of Mr. Ajayi Olayinka from custody,” the letter sighted by Saturday PUNCH read in part. “We humbly believe that the exercise of this power would afford him a second chance in life and enable him the opportunity to contribute his quota to the development of our great country.”

In a swift reaction, the deceased’s family expressed deep outrage over the clemency request, describing the arguments contained in Olayinka’s petition as a misleading rewriting of the facts and a grave insult to the memory of the victim.

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Rejecting claims by the defense counsel that the victim provoked the attack, the family stated that Bamidele was murdered in cold blood while lawfully carrying out community service aimed at enforcing health and safety protocols during a national emergency.

“We have seen the clemency letter which falsely claims that Bamidele molested and provoked the convict and that the act was not premeditated. Your Excellency, this is a complete falsehood and an insult to the memory of our brother and to the judgment of the court,” the family stated in their petition.

Detailing the devastating domino effect the tragedy had on their household, Adesanya disclosed that both of Bamidele’s parents developed severe medical complications brought on by deep depression and grief following their son’s murder, leading to their eventual deaths.

“This murder destroyed our family completely. Our parents developed terminal illnesses from the shock and have both passed on our mother in 2025 and our father in 2026. Bamidele left behind a helpless widow, a daughter who was 10 at the time and is now 16, and a son who was barely eight months old when his father was slain,” the family lamented.

Addressing claims in the clemency petition that Olayinka had demonstrated reform by obtaining a university degree from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) while serving his sentence at the Ibara Correctional Centre, the family argued that academic achievements in prison should not commute a life sentence for a violent crime.

“Rehabilitation does not rewrite the facts of a brutal murder. Getting a degree in prison does not restore the life that was violently snuffed out, nor does it bring back our parents who died of heartbreak,” the family stated.

The family urged the governor, as the chief security officer of Ogun State, to stand on the side of justice and the victims of violent crime by turning down the application for executive pardon.

They emphasized that keeping the convict in custody serves as a necessary deterrent against street violence, lawlessness, and vigilante impunity in Ogun State.

As of the time of filing this report, the Ogun State Ministry of Justice and the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy have yet to issue an official response regarding the pending clemency application.